low cost integrated amp for newbie

Great suggestions above (except for receivers over integrated amps and the reliability of Sony gear), but let me add one comment:

If you buy an integrated amp first, then you must match your future speakers to the specifications of the amp you have already chosen (unless you want to purchase another amplifier). This could severely limit your future speaker choices.

Each speaker presents different loads for your amplifier. The most common speaker problems are low efficiency, low characteristic impedance (<4 ohm), and difficult load characteristics (such as the capacitive load of electrostatic speakers). Some speakers need very high current, high power amplifiers; some requirement amplifiers that can operate into very low impedances without becoming unstable, some require amplifiers that like capacitive loads (such as tube amps), etc. Will your future speakers be a good match for your chosen amplifier? If it's a high efficiency, 8-ohm impedance, and resistive load, then you will probably be ok otherwise, you may need a different amp.

For me, its easier to find a speaker I love and then get the best amp I can afford to drive it, rather than have my speaker choice dictated by my amplifier. Just some food for thought!

Did someone say receivers????????

www.harmanaudio.com Harman Kardon HK3470 100wpc $188.00 refurb. $18 shipping.

www.accessories4less.com Marantz 4120 60 wpc $250.00 free shipping.

Marantz has a bit better tonality on vocals and violins.

Both have 30 day trial so not much to loose if you want to try one out.

Fishinfool,

I cannot agree more with you on everything you mentioned in your last post. Sane advise!

As for the record the Puccini SE is very comfortable driving a 4 Ohm load as well. No problems there. My friend who has it is driving his ESS floorstander speakers with side with large woofers are 4 Ohms and the sound is excellent (tube like, if I dare say it). I am not sure of the sensitivity but I guess in 90's

I'll chime in again. Lots of great posts, even Geoff who must "completely disagree" with me. He recommends some fine equipment, which will certainly provide a lot of long term satisfaction.

I guess the ultimate question is what truly is the budget, and the priority.

I have heard the NAD 320BEE, and it bettered some nicer receivers IMO, including a Yamaha and Pioneer. It even edged out a more expensive Rotel integrated to my ears as well.

As for driving speakers, the NAD is stable into lower impedences, no worries. Deepest bass may be lighter than the heavyweights, but muscially, it is a winner overall.

I am an ex-Audio Analogue owner, I bought the Puccini SE a few years ago over 4 other integrateds, ALL of which are more expensive by 1.5 to 3 times the SE's price. I thoroughly agree, that would be a great amp to get. Based on the original post, though, it may be best to keep the recommendations closer to the original budget. Maybe we convinced Ann to spend more, maybe not...

But the NAD's or any of the other recommendations would be a warm welcome into the world of music and "audiophilia."

Best of luck to Ann, and hope there is years of good listening ahead !

Fishinfool's advice, while not totally incorrect as far as it goes, to me seems a little beside the point, considering that any major future system upgrade (if Ann decides to go that way) will likely mean improving upon any small integrated amp bought in the circa $300 range, no matter what she chooses first at this juncture. That is, after all, how better systems are built over the years.

Since I really doubt she will be in any danger of trying to mate, for the moment, a particularly 'tough load' speaker (read: larger, maybe esoteric, more expensive, and more revealing) with her modest amp choice, this 'danger' can be safely disregarded for the time being. Any decent small integrated she is likely to get should do an appropriate job of driving any decent, small, and relatively inexpensive speakers she might pair with them as her potential next step.

Yes, it would be ideal to be able to choose a new amp and new speakers concurrently and audition the options together as a system to create a synergistic match with no prior constraints, but her amp is on the fritz now, and she's just getting her toes wet in this stuff. Significant further upgrading, should it occur, would mean eventually upgrading everything anyway, small integrated included. But she will not be unduly limited in her choice of matching speakers in the commensurate size, price, and fidelity range she is likely to be shopping in this time around by choosing her amp first to meet her current needs, so I wouldn't encourage her to needlessly worry over having to go 'amp-first' now.

However, I do concur, as a general rule and when other conditions (such as a broken amp) are not prevailing, that if and when Ann decides to progress higher up the audiophile food chain, the ideal upgrading sequence is speakers first, amp to follow - though as in everything audiophile, there is hardly universal agreement with that view. But even in that scenario, the amp she gets now will probably suffice to produce acceptable sound for the meantime if she has to stagger her upgrades and go speakers first, amplifier second in the next round (even if that round winds up beginning with her next speaker purchase and not a subsequent one). Besides, I suspect her next moves, beyond maybe changing the present speakers, would be in the areas of sources and wires, and anyway, one of the beauties of buying on Audiogon is that she will not be facing much depreciation when it comes time to sell the small integrated (especially one bought in the price range she is contemplating here), so the whole prospect should be neither daunting nor painful in the pocketbook at this stage of her audio-development.